Summoned Again?

“You can't be serious.” Lionel said when we reached the base of the volcano and I told him where we needed to go. “How are we supposed to get inside the thing?”

“We don't have to do anything.” I said. “I'll be going down to look for the entrance with the Search spell.”

“How far down is the tunnel if you have to go inside to find it?” Nat asked.

“Hopefully, it won't be below the lava level.” I said. “If it is...”

“You are NOT going for a swim in LAVA!” Nat yelled. “Your armor is busted! It won't last a second without the enchantments!”

I chuckled. “I was going to say that we can dig down after I find out what direction it goes.”

“Ohhh. Okay. That's fine.” Nat said in agreement.

“You can't really be thinking of going down there.” Angel said. “That's just insane.”

“I'm not sure what to tell you.” I said.

“I can at least fly out of there if there's trouble. What are you going to do if something goes wrong?”

“Climb for my life?” I asked, jokingly.

“This isn't a class trip, Damon.” Angel said with a frown and crossed her arms. “You could easily slip and die going down into that thing.”

“If that does happen, I just have to hope that the Goddess Jasindia sends me back home.”

“That is a horrible plan; but, for some reason, I trust you.” Nat said with a smile.

“You can trust me with my own life? Thanks a lot.” I said and she laughed.

“Can we tie a rope or something to you?” Angel asked.

“It would catch fire, even if he doesn't get down to the lava level.” Nat said to her and looked at me. “We are going to come up most of the slope to the lower edge with you.”

“As long as you don't follow.” I said and looked at the others. “You can't get too close to the edge, especially those of you with so much exposed fur.”

“We will be careful.” My Favorite said. “We will also risk it all to save you.”

“Don't worry about me. I'll be fine.” I said. “I have you here waiting for me.”

“You're stalling.” Lionel said.

“I just want to take a moment to reassure the people with me that I'll be back as soon as I can.” I said and stepped close to My Favorite. I gave her a kiss, then the other cat women, Selene was next, and the last was the Freemartin. Out of all of them, she was the most human looking and I liked kissing her.

After that, we all walked up the slope. It was gradual and quite rough for a while, which meant that it had been the most recent of the lava flows. It wasn't until we were almost at the partially collapsed mouth of the volcano that it became steeper.

“That's far enough. I have to climb from here.” I said, a bit unnecessarily.

“Good luck, Day Man.” The Freemartin said and gave me a hug.

“Thanks.” I said and stepped back, equipped my armor, and started to climb. I was as strong as I was ever going to be, so I used that strength and dug my armored fingers into the side of the volcano and ascended quickly. I didn't rush, because I didn't want to make a mistake. When I reached the top a couple of minutes later, I stopped and waved down at them. I wasn't surprised that Lionel didn't wave back.

I was pretty sure he was jealous of me, considering I was Level 99 and he suspected that Angel liked me. Or was turned on by me, at least. I was pretty sure that both of their reasoning was because of my long black hair and my tan. Oh, and that I didn't show a lick of interest in Angel. He probably thought I was in denial and she probably thought I was playing hard to get.

I chuckled at those thoughts and started to climb down inside the mouth of the volcano. What they didn't know was that Angel was a tall and blonde supermodel and was gorgeous, and that she just wasn't my type. At all. I didn't get even a little excited from her intentional 'down the top' glimpses that she would occasionally give me when she could. It was endearing that she was trying so hard.

Nat on the other hand, was short, had dark hair, and had a great personality. That pushed quite a few of my buttons and explained why I had told her so much about myself and what life was like back on Earth. I really did consider her a great friend and I was even tempted to tell her, in confidence, that this wasn't my first 'other world' adventure. That was kind of dangerous information, though. The less she knew at the moment, the better.

I cast Search and didn't get anything on this side of the very steep slope. I did sense the bottom, however. I paused my climbing and carefully looked down. To my surprise, there was still a dried rock cap over the lava that was supposed to be there. That was both good and bad. Good that I should have a nice stable thing to cross and use Search on. Bad that it was currently rumbling and the smoke was increasing.

I was tempted to let go and drop down to get to the bottom; but, I didn't want to take the chance that I would miss the entrance on the way down as I fell. Plus, I would then have to climb back up to get to it if I did pass it. I was kind of in a rush; but, not that big of a rush that I would risk missing it by being too quick to get to the bottom.

I hastened my descent and when I came to the next spot where I could cast Search again, I stopped and waited for the information to populate the Map. I really needed to figure out how to read the information that I wasn't getting, namely the distance up and down of the things the spell revealed. This time it wasn't as bad, because I was moving down in a single direction and any information that might appear, would be below me.

Twenty minutes later, I reached the bottom of the inside of the volcano and I wasn't surprised that there were no ledges, crevasses, outcroppings, cliffs, or anything else anywhere on the sides. It was all completely smooth with grooves from where I stood and all the way up to the top, almost like rifling of a gun barrel.

“Jesus.” I whispered. “It must shoot lava out like a cannon.” My eyes looked down at what I was standing on. “...and I'm standing on the cannonball.”

I shook my head and kept casting Search as I walked around the circumference of the huge volcano. The damn thing must be very powerful to blow parts of the mountain off every time it erupted and I was currently inside of it. If it went off now, I would probably be pulverized from the outgassing and the pressure release. I wouldn't even have to worry about burning up in the lava.

I chuckled at my morbid thoughts and quickened my pace. I made it all around the circumference and I didn't find any cave or tunnel entrance. My thoughts went to the possibility that it would have been covered or filled in during an eruption, so that meant I needed to climb up a short way and then cast Search into the walls.

It took me another two hours to finally find the tunnel. I was right and it had been partially filled with lava and sealed off, several hundred feet up from the volcano's 'floor'. Luckily, it was almost directly across from where I had come down and went off in a thirty degree angle and upwards towards the surface.

I climbed back down, jogged across the volcano, then climbed up the other side. I could go a little faster, now that I knew where I was going and didn't have to be as careful. Ten minutes later, I was up and over the lip of the volcano. No one was looking up, so I thought about playing a bit of a prank on them for not keeping watch.

“Look out below!” I yelled as I jumped.

Angel let out a short startled scream and everyone looked up at me as I fell towards them. She immediately deployed her wings and flew up to catch me. I stored my armor and opened my arms to make it easier for her to grab me. She banked in her flight at the last second to change her momentum to more of a sideways direction and just before she grabbed me, I activated Featherfall. The surprised look on her face as she easily caught me, without hurting herself or me, was worth a million bucks.

I hugged her close as she flew around in a slow circle to bring us in for a safe landing. “I finally got to hug you without interference.” I whispered and I felt that instant connection to her. It wasn't the same as Nat's, though. I felt friendship and understanding; but, no instant attraction or a deep long lasting friendship that I knew Nat's was going to be. We wouldn't be exchanging contact information.

Angel landed with me in her arms and stood me on my feet as her wings faded. “How did you do that?”

“It wasn't me.” I said and didn't let her go. “Thanks for the save.”

“You didn't need it.” Angel whispered.

“You're wrong.” I said with a smile. “We both needed it.”

“Hey! Let her go!” Lionel exclaimed. He didn't try casting any spells, since I assumed I was much too close to Angel for him to trust himself to not hurt her.

“Relax.” I said. “I could kiss her and you still wouldn't have to worry.”

“No!” Lionel said loudly and came over to us, clearly angry.

“I said to relax.” I eased my hold on Angel and then let her go. “She knows we can only be friends.”

“Sex friends?” Nat asked and then laughed at Lionel's disgusted face, because only she knew what the answer was going to be.

“No.” Angel and I said together.

“You know, hers is really pretty.” Nat teased and that made me laugh.

“Hey, if I'm not going to see yours, it's not fair to ask to see hers.”

“Who said you wouldn't see mine?” Nat asked and gave me the most innocent and wide eyed look that I had ever seen.

I burst out laughing and put my arm over her shoulders. “Is that an invitation to watch the next time you and Paula get together?”

“Hell no. She's been declared a no penis zone, thank you very much.” Nat said and grinned at me.

I laughed some more and then shook my head. “Come on, everyone. The tunnel we're looking for is over this way.”

It took a bit longer to walk around the volcano and reach the spot. We had to walk down the slope a short ways before my Search spell could pick up the tunnel again, then we followed it for several miles. When we reached the end, it was another lake.

“Damon! This makes sense!” Nat said and created posters of the drawings again. “Look! A crater and a waterfall!”

I stared at the image and had to agree. The waterfall was in the distance, though. It was a bit father away than the picture showed. The water from a nearby river had eroded part of the crater's side out and must have filled the thing over the decades, which also filled the tunnel and stopped the lava from filling the tunnel from the other end.

“There's a bluff in the next one beside the water.” Angel said and pointed to the next picture.

“The waterfall's the only source of water that I can see, so let's go and see where it leads.” I said and everyone agreed.

None of us had expected the landscapes to change so much over just a short period of time, so following the trail back to the first image was a little bit harder than it sounded when I first proposed it. We kept going, however. We didn't have much choice, anyway. We had to leave the lands of the bears by tonight, trail or no trail.

We did not want to be around when the leader bear decided that we would never be leaving.

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